Process of treating ores.



R. s. HANDY. PROCESS 0F TREATING OIHESV.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 28| 19H.l

' Patented Jim@ v6, 1916.

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WITNESSES m 9% E@ 'STATES Raf 1 ROYAL s. HANDY,'0F .KELLoeG, IDAHornoofns's on .TREATING onus;

' To all whom t may concern.'

' to be collected and treated as desired.l When 4'5 citizen ofthe'United States, residing rat Kellogg, in the county of Shoshone. and-State of Idaho, have invented new and useful Improvements, 1n Processesof Treating O res, of which the following is a specliif.

cation. l

This invention relates to a process for the extraction of xmetal valuesfrom ores, and pertains especially to a vprocess employ;

ing an aqueous solution of a suitable chlorid.

The invention comprehends. generally-the` following steps: The orey to.be treatedjs first ground, either dry, or inthe presencefj; of water to-a consistency tolpa'ss'throil'gli' QA The pulp :'iSLthenfaA twenty meshscreen. filtered, if necessary,-to free it ofv most v"of its water, thesolid residuum from the filtering then being dried ready for roasting.The dry product is then roasted ina manner well known in the art.. Theroasted 'mar terial is'then subjected to heat, aeration, and

agitation in a vessel to which a suitable quantity of aqueous solutionof a suitable chl'orld such for instance as sodium chlorld or ammoniumchlorld or ferrous or ferrie chlorid, or any 'combination' of them, haskbeen added. The heated agitatedA contentsy are then filtered andthefiltrate iscooled and settled. The residue in the filter is then furtheragitated, aerated, and heated with the above chlorids, in anycombination desirable, or with vwash water, until the metallic contentsof the ore in the ilter have been sulicientlyv chlorinated andextracted.. The residue is then Washed `out .of the iilter to Waste. lLead chlorid in the filtrate. crystallizesfout to a large extent' uponcooling, 'and ythe soluble chlorids remaining `-infthe cool solution maybe decanted off and used for treatment of freshore, leaving the -leadchlorid the solutionof soluble chlorids becomes burdened with any salt,it may be diverted to precipitating boxes, where the metals vmaybeprecipitated by any suitable means,

such as circulating the solutions over iron,

N, Y lead, z inc, copper, or other precipitant, or Be it known that I,ROYAL S. HANDY, a.

by electrolysis of the solutions, or by electrolysis of a fused mass-ofthe salt;

Patented JuneA 6, 1916. Application mea october '28, 1914. serial No.868,993. A

In the drawing I have diagrammatically represented. an apparatussuitable for practlsing the invention; the combined heater,

aerato'r and filter being shown in section. 1 represents a suitablemeans for grindf mg the ore; 2 a suitablemeans.for filtering,`

if required; 3- a drier for the filtered residue; 2J; a roaster of anyappropriate deisign from whichthe roasted product is de`v livered to afilter 5 into whicha suitable amount of the chlorids of sodium, am-

'. monium or iron, in any combination,.in `aqueous solution 1s admitted.from the storage Atanks Gland 7. The filter 5 preferably consists of aconicalbottomed wooden tank with an airtight` cover '8 and containing anair lift 9 centrally suspendedreaching nearly tothe bottom ofthe cone,withdischarge holes-10 near the top of the tank; the pipe 4of the airlift extending through the tight cover 'of the tank far enough ,to giveequilibrium to the mass of pulp within the pipe'and allowing the excessof air to escape. The. inside periphery ofthe. tank' is covered with asuitable filtering medium 11, such as cocoa matting, canvas or asbestoslcloth securedby means of circular wooden strips 12 which aresuitably`fastened to the tank. Thesey wooden -strips' form compartments, eachofl which-is drained by suitable' pipes 13 leading to asurroundingheader leading by pipe 15 to a suction pump, not shown. By

usedfor ltering instead of suction. Manimeans of valvesl'l. thecompartments may lbe. consecutively cut o desired, the valve 17 at thehead of the 'air' lift pipe 'may be closed vand pressure from thesuction.

festly any other desirable agitator-liltermay b e used in this processhowever.

18 and 19 are suitable wooden tanks for cooling and settlingvtheviiltrates. 20 is a, filter for washing and drying' the lead chloridwhich crystallizes out of 18 and 19. 21 is an evaporator for fusing thesame and A22 represents electrolytic cells for produc-` ing chlorin andlead from thefused lead chlorid. 23 are precipitating boxes forprecipitating the metals from the burdened chlorid solutions decantedoff from 18 and 19.y 24C and 25 is' an apparatus for collecting andmelting these metals. 26 are elecf tiolytic cells for producing chlorinand zinc from zinc chlorid; `27 is an 'apparatus for manufacturingferric .chlorid or ferrous chlorid'from the action of chlorin orhydrochloric acid upon the iron in ores. l believe it is not necessaryto describe these varioustanks, precipitating boxes and electrolyticcells in detail, as they are all iii current use in the practice oftheart.

The apparatus required inthe treatment of ores bythis process dependsupon the metallic contents of the ores, and the strength and-amount fsolutions required depends upon the quantities of such metallic contentspresent. An ore containing iron, lead, zinc, Silver and copper sulidswould first be roasted to form as much lead sulfate and iron oxid aspossible, as follows:

The roasted orevwould then be treated with sodiumfchlorid, as follows.:

rtsonLaiuci:rtcizgeuazsoa The lead -chlorid would crystallize out andthe Na@4x would be either discarded or evaporated and treated with coaland linie Y to form sodium carbonate, as follows:

Nagsogaoeuazsjeaco'z Nas+caco3=iia2co3+cas zinc is in a highlymarketable forni.

The residue from they first filtration' is then treatedwith ferriechlorid (or ferrouschlorid) as follows:

. Any ferrous chlorid is immediately oxii dizedto ferrie-chloridl by theaction of the ln the precipitation, the following reac tions take place:

' electriccurrent C12 'metal7V and an equivalent amount of iron will' gointo solutionas ferrous chlorid, which may be oxidized .to ferriechlorid and usedfor further extraction of metals from the ores, asfollows:

Having thus described myinvention, what l claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent isl. rllhe process of' treating sulfid ores containinglead which comprises roasting the ores, extracting the lead .sulfatewith an aqueous solution of sodium chlorid, extract v'ing other metalconstituents with an aqueous solution of iron chlorid, andrecovering'the lead and other metal constituents from such solutions. i

2. rlhe process of treating'sulfid ores containing lead which comprisesroasting the ore, extracting the lead sulfate with ahot aqueoussolution` of-'sodium chlorid while subjecting the ore to agitation andaeration, separating the resulting solution from the ore, extracting the.remaining orewith a hot aqueous solution of iron chlorid, whilesubjecting the ore to agitation and aeration,

and recovering the metal Values from the resulting solutions.

, 3. `The process ofv treating sulid ores con. taining-lead, silver andzine which-comprises roasting the ore, extracting the lead sulfate withan aqueous solution of sodium chlorid, then extracting the silver andZinc with anaqueous solutiona of ferrie chlorid, and recovering themetal values from the resulting solutions.

eoV

In testimony whereof l have hereunto set my hand in the presence of` twosubscribing witnesses.

' i ROYAL S. HANDY.

Witnesses:

STANLEY A. EASTON, A I WV. K. GWIN.

